Guitar Pro 6...

I know it will finally have support for 8 string guitars; i cant wait to get it!

It's almost here :D check out this official review:
http://en.audiofanzine.com/tablature-editor/arobas-music/Guitar-Pro-6/editorial/reviews/And-the-Tab-Goes-On-.html

Does anyone have a link to a more up to date "My Songbook" than the one I have now? Mine is 4 years old.

Does anyone have a link to a more up to date "My Songbook" than the one I have now? Mine is 4 years old.
As far as I know, there is no newer version. The file was handed out at around the same time as mysongbook was closed down.

Happily, the database was taken over and still exists "somewhere offshore", but there is no downloadable library.

I just ordered my upgrade copy. I'll let you know how it is.

I'm doing the same. Also downloading the latest RSE. Taking forever. 1.7gb

I wonder how long it will take for Tux-guitar to support the new file format?

I am having major problems getting the RSE downloaded. It quit the first time about 80% in to it. Pretty big file to have do download. 1.7gb it says. This time is going even slower. :evil: :evil:

I cannot find an alternative site either.

Roy, get yourself a download manager. There are plenty of freeware ones around.

You can break off as often as you like and restart, from where you left off, later.

Try this one. I've never tried it but it sounds promising http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

There's also http://www.flashget.com/index_en.htm

I didn't know these existed. Thanks, I'll get one and install it for future use.

I did get it downloaded overnight and is now installed. Time to go play around with it all.

I've had just a bit of time to mess with it so far. A few initial comments.

The RSE was a download nightmare, but it got done. Installation a breeze. It sounds pretty decent as well. Very limited selection of guitars, bass, drums, etc, but it looks like each one is editable with effects and playing style. I think it's as big as the previous selection, but laid out differently. Probably much easier to work with.....

....which leads me to the GUI. It's got a nicer looking GUI that previous editions. More is available right beside the music sheet. I did not like it at first. It breaks away from traditional Windows(TM) applications. Yes, there are still the massive menu items running from levt to right at the top of the GUI, as is standard operating procedure, but there are very easy to use panels to the left of the music sheet(s). Click on an icon on the far left side of the screen and a bigger panel appears in between the far left panel and the music sheet. This is where most of the settings or options are (depending what panel you bring up). Just about everything is right there in front of you. Very nice.

One thing I do not like is the gray and black. Gray is a very common way to indicate to a user that you cannot click on this item. Not so here. The shade of gray is what you have to look for. Light gray is clickable, dark gray is not. Add to it that the mouse pointer does not change over a clickable item to use a hand symbol. It stays an arrow. A small outline appears surrounding the link instead. Once you know this, all is good. Just not very traditional.

One very neat feature is just how simple is to change volume in a track. Making your guitar part louder for a section and quieter for another section is a breeze. It's at least down to the beat level. Getting to that menu is somewhat hidden, and that brings up my biggest gripe. The Help documentation stinks on ice. You want to do something? Start hunting. There is a very noticable feature missing from the help pages. Search functionality. :evil:

One last item. I am pretty certain that this newer, more graphically rich GUI and more imediatte RSE loading when hitting the play arrow is a smaller footprint onto your memory. Maybe not one song, but it lets you open several songs up at once and presents them in tab form just like using some photo editing software. It increases memory useage with each file opened, but I don't think there's a complete instance of Guitar Pro open with each file loaded like with the previous edition. I've got a 4+ year old PC with Outlook, Windows Explorer, 5 tabs of Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Excel, AIM, Task Manager, Audacity and my stupid antivirus protection running and can still have open three different GP files. If I tried to do this inprevious editions, my PC would have stopped dead and needed de-fib (power shut off and on) to get out of it.

I've just downloaded the demo version to see what the new version gives you.

The new features seem to be a natural progression from v5, so no problem there.

As with rparker, my allergy to black backgrounds had my back up straight away. I find it abysmal, not to mention depressing.

The black background makes the plethora of icons, in the left-hand frame seem inordinately cluttered and confusing, not helped by the standard icon colour being grey. Grey and black lack contrast at the best of times, but when faced with something like 100 icons in such a confined area, it is not easy to get a clear picture of what is where.

I've written an email to Arobas, to ask about skins or a different background.

I'd really like to buy GP6, but not with that background.

Just a couple of notes. I've been using i for a couple of weeks now. I do find it's three column approach rather intuitive after an adjustment period. Still not a fan of the color scheme, but that's probably more of a contrast issue going on than anything else.

A few gripes beyond the previously mentioned items.

First, you cannot see a previously constructed piece of music done on an intrument other than guitar laid out in guitar TAB format. This was pretty much a default with GP-5. The option to do so is grayed out. For instance, say I wanted to see the trumpet portion of the intro to Johny Cash's "Ring of Fire" laid out in guitar TAB format. I could not do so with this version, but could with GP-5. Same file, different result.

My second gripe, is that I cannot figure out how to determine which tracks are visible in the multi-track view mode. It's either one or all.

Another gripe is on a machine that is only part time connected to the web. When it never was connected, it worked fine. I got it connected and now GP-6 will only run if the connection is active. Bunch of re-installs and such did not fix issue. I create backing tracks by running it on that other machine and recording it via phones out to mic in to my main machine. Neither can do both at the same time without hiccups and such. Machine number 2 runs very slow if connected to the web, which defeats it's primary purpose.

I still would not let these gripes stop anyone from purchasing this. Hopefully these things will be resolved in a minor release. It is pretty much what is to be expected, being a first major release. If you have GP-5, don't delete it. You'll still need it to see other instruments as if laid out in Guitar TAB. (the first gripe)

Having written to Arobas, about the black background, they couldn't be bothered to reply.

I've written to them again, but don't expect any response. Appalling customer service.